September 27, 2010

Nintendo Correcting Game-breaking Metroid: Other M Bug

Like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess before it, it turns out that Nintendo's recent Metroid: Other M for the Wii contains a terrible bug that will cut your progress short prematurely with nothing you can do to repair the situation. It all has to do with a certain boss encounter in Sector 3 that blocks the path through a door needed to continue through the Bottle Ship. If you happen to defeat the boss and then double-back to save your progress, that door will never open. Ever. Since you must go through that door to proceed deeper into the game, this is a problem. This wouldn't be an issue if it were possible to patch Wii games via the Internet, but since that's not an option, Nintendo has come up with a more old fashioned solution to the problem. Kotaku has the story.

In Japan, Nintendo is offering to rectify the problem. The Kyoto-based company is asking players to either send a SD card with their save files or their Wii console (with its 512MB of internal Flash memory) to its service center in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture.

It is not necessary for players to send a copy of their game. Nintendo says it will take a week to fix the game and will cover the cost of shipping.

In an official release, Nintendo humbly apologizes for any trouble this bug has caused.

I'm glad that the company is going out of its way to fix the bug, but maybe the next time Nintendo prepares a new console, that console should be able to receive online patches. I realize that opens the door to shoddy quality control and rushing games to market, but I trust Nintendo enough to squash just about all of the bugs before one of their titles makes it to stores. They don't always solve all of the problems (Other M is a prime example), but I just don't see them releasing half-finished games with plans to fix them later just because they can.

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Nintendo Correcting Game-breaking Metroid: Other M Bug

Like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess before it, it turns out that Nintendo's recent Metroid: Other M for the Wii contains a terrible bug that will cut your progress short prematurely with nothing you can do to repair the situation. It all has to do with a certain boss encounter in Sector 3 that blocks the path through a door needed to continue through the Bottle Ship. If you happen to defeat the boss and then double-back to save your progress, that door will never open. Ever. Since you must go through that door to proceed deeper into the game, this is a problem. This wouldn't be an issue if it were possible to patch Wii games via the Internet, but since that's not an option, Nintendo has come up with a more old fashioned solution to the problem. Kotaku has the story.

In Japan, Nintendo is offering to rectify the problem. The Kyoto-based company is asking players to either send a SD card with their save files or their Wii console (with its 512MB of internal Flash memory) to its service center in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture.

It is not necessary for players to send a copy of their game. Nintendo says it will take a week to fix the game and will cover the cost of shipping.

In an official release, Nintendo humbly apologizes for any trouble this bug has caused.

I'm glad that the company is going out of its way to fix the bug, but maybe the next time Nintendo prepares a new console, that console should be able to receive online patches. I realize that opens the door to shoddy quality control and rushing games to market, but I trust Nintendo enough to squash just about all of the bugs before one of their titles makes it to stores. They don't always solve all of the problems (Other M is a prime example), but I just don't see them releasing half-finished games with plans to fix them later just because they can.